Where did the names come from? Where did the name Ivanov and other names come from?

Every person has a surname, but did anyone think about where it came from, who invented it, and for what purposes is it needed? There were times when people had only names, for example, in the territory of the former Rus such a tendency was observed up to the XIV century. The study of the surname can tell a lot of interesting information about the history of the genus, and in some cases even allows you to determine the ancestor. Just one word tells about the welfare of the ancestors of the family, their belonging to the higher or lower class, the presence of foreign roots.

The origin of the word "surname"

Many are interested in what the name was, what it meant and for what purposes it was used. It turns out that this word has a foreign origin and initially had a completely different meaning than it is now. In the Roman Empire, this term refers not to family members, but to slaves. Under a particular name was meant a group of slaves belonging to one Roman. Only in the XIX century, this word has acquired its current meaning. In our time, a family name is meant by a family name, inherited and added to the person's name.

When did the first names appear in Russia?

To find out where the names came from, it is necessary to return to the 14th-15th centuries and to penetrate into the history of Russia. In those days, society was divided into classes. It is this conditional division that was reflected in future names, representatives of different layers acquired them at different times. Families first got princes, feudal lords, boyars, a little later this fashion came to merchants and nobles. Simple people did not have names, they were addressed only by name. Such a privilege was possessed only by rich and influential estates.

How the name has occurred can be determined from its meaning. For example, the family names of many feudal lords echo the name of their lands: Vyazemsky, Tverskoy, etc. The lands were inherited from father to son, respectively, the family retained the surname of its founder. Many names of families had roots of foreign origin, this was due to the fact that people came from other states and based on our lands. But this is characteristic only of wealthy estates.

The names of the former serfs

It turns out that even in the XIX century have their own name was an impermissible luxury, which could not boast of the poor and serfs. Before the abolition of serfdom, held in 1861, a simple Russian people used names, nicknames, patronymics. When they gained freedom and began to belong to themselves, and not to nobles, it became necessary to invent a name for them. During the census in 1897, the scribes themselves invented the former serf name of the birth, as far as imagination was. For this reason, a large number of namesakes appeared, because the same names were attributed to hundreds of people.

For example, where did the name Ivanov come from? It's very simple, the fact is that its founder was Ivan. Very often in such cases, the suffix "s" or "ee" was added to the name, so Alexandrov, Sidorov, Fedorov, Grigoriev, Mikhailov, Alekseev, Pavlov, Artemiev, Sergeyev, etc. turned out, the list can be continued indefinitely. Where did the name Kuznetsov come from? Here the answer is even simpler - from the occupation, such a lot was formed: Konyukhov, Plotnikov, Slesarenko, Sapozhnikov, Tkachenko, etc. Some peasants took the animal names they liked: Sobolev, Medvedev, Gusev, Lebedev, Volkov, Zhuravlev, Sinitsyn. Thus, by the end of the 19th century, most of the population had their own names.

The most common surnames

Many are interested not only in the question of where the names came from, but also which of them are the most common. There is an opinion that most often there are Ivanov, Petrov and Sidorov. Perhaps this was before, but to date it is outdated information. Ivanov, though, is one of the three leaders, but is not on the first, but on the honorable second place. The third place is occupied by Kuznetsov, but the leadership is held by Smirnov. The mentioned Petrov is on 11 place, and here Sidorov - on 66.

What can tell prefixes, suffixes and endings?

As already mentioned, the suffixes "ov" and "ev" were attributed to the names, if they are discarded, then the person will receive the name of his ancestor-founder. Much depends on the stress, if it falls on the last syllable, then the surname belongs to the peasant, and on the second - to the eminent nobleman. The clergy changed the name of the family, for example, Ivanov became John.

When asked about the origin of the surname with the suffix "skiy", for a long time there was no unambiguous answer. Today the researchers agreed that such names belonged to the noblemen of Polish blood, as well as to the servants of the churches dedicated to the Epiphany: Znamensky, Bogoyavlensky, Krestovozdvizhensky. They are associated with such holidays as the Holy Cross, Baptism, dedicated to the icon of the Virgin "The Sign".

The suffixes "in" and "en" mainly belong to Russian Jews: Ivashkin, Fokin, Fomin. Ivashka could be dismissed as a Jew, and Fock and Thomas are purely Jewish names. The diminutive suffixes "Uk", "Chuk", "Enk", "Onk", "Yuk" belong to Slavic surnames. They are mostly found in Ukraine: Kovalchuk, Kravchuk, Litovchenko, Osipenko, Sobachenko, Gerashchenko, etc.

Random surnames

Not all surnames can tell about the ancient, glorious genus. The fact is that most of them were simply invented by people, therefore such names do not contain information even about the name, occupation or place of residence of the founder. Sometimes there are very curious cases, telling where the names came from. In the Soviet Union there was an active formalization, so anyone with a dirty name could easily change it. Many people from the villages (mostly young boys and girls) received their surnames along with their passports. So, at one guy the policeman asked: "Whose are you?" - "Papanin", so it was written into the document. And there are a lot of such stories. Whatever it was, but now every person has a surname that can tell a lot of interesting things about the whole family.